This past summer I drove across country, from New York City, to Los Angeles. A close friend was starting life anew, re-birthing, and my task was to guide her through the amniotic fluid of America with the aid of a GPS, road map, and a copy of Hamburgers Across America. The view driving across the Goethals Bridge, from Staten Island into New Jersey, provided our last glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean. We had technically left the East Coast, and it was only a half hour into our journey. That afternoon, for our last Eastern meal, we stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s at the side of the highway.

For the remainder of the trip, all five days, we searched for hints that we were getting closer to the West. We started to place bets on when we would see the first sunflower, the first mountain, the first cactus (the cactus would remain elusive). While the changes were at first subtle, slowly the scenery shifted: hilly green pastures in Kansas, dry open expanses in Colorado and fiery orange mountains in Arizona. It was not until we became completely disoriented by the sights that surrounded us, that we realized that we had at last reached the West. But on reaching the West, we wanted nothing more than the familiarity of the East. We stopped for lunch at Burger King, kept our radio tuned to NPR, and slept at the same Hilton Garden Inn’s that we had frequented in Kansas City and Columbus.

As we entered Las Vegas we got braver with our surroundings, taking the time, in the desert heat, to admire the fountains at the Bellagio Casino, rising and falling to Celine Dion’s power ballad My Heart Will Go On. We abandoned our familiar Eastern fast-food haunts for an all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet. Having driven across nothing but desert for the past couple of days, they were now more familiar to us than the verdant landscapes back East. As we approached Los Angeles, our West Coast transition was almost complete. Pulling off the highway in Hesperia California, we stopped for our final road trip meal: an In-N-Out Burger, animal style.

E. Sean Bailey

Following the devastation of Sri Lanka’s 2004’s tsunami much foreign aid was provided for reconstruction. The government’s Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) has released reports stating that “by December 2007, nearly 100,000 houses had been provided nationwide, out of a needs assessment of 117,372 units. In January 2008, RADA reported a reconstruction rate of over 90%.” However, this reconstruction aid was unevenly distributed across the island.

Although the Eastern Coast was hit the hardest, the bulk of the rebuilding took place in the South, leaving the Eastern and Northern Coasts struggling to recover from the devastation. Many attribute this disparity to the division between the area controlled by the Sri Lankan government (the Southern Coast) and that which, up until May of 2008, was controlled by the Tamil Tigers (parts of the East Coast and the entire Northern region). The Southern parts of the country have benefited enormously from the rebuilding, with the improved housing and infrastructure leading to greater productivity and an improving regional economy. World Vision reports that “incomes in the South are now higher than pre-tsunami levels, whereas in the East incomes have dropped 25% lower than pre-tsunami levels.” The East and particularly the North have not been able to recover from this disaster, a circumstance that has been exacerbated by close to thirty years of civil war.

Given that the war has come to an end, the recently re-elected government may want to consider the tremendous opportunity they have to reunite the country and stimulate long-term development. Allowing the Eastern Coast, leading up to the North, to tap into the socio-economic benefits of reconstruction could not only relieve the plight of those who have been suffering for years, if not decades, but may work to strengthen the chances of a peaceful, prosperous future for everyone.

Erandi de Silva